Proverbs 1:10

My son, if sinners entice thee,.... Endeavour to seduce thee from thy parents, and draw thee aside from them, from listening to their instructions, advice, and commands; and make use of all plausible

My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. So Joseph (Genesis 39:7, etc.; Psalms 1:1).

Sinners; eminently so called, as 26:9; such as sell themselves to work all manner of wickedness; particularly thieves, and robbers, and murderers, as appears from the next verses, as also oppressors and cheaters, by comparing this with .

Proverbs 1:10 My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.Ver. 10. If sinners entice thee.] To an ill bargain; to a match of mischief, as Ahab did Jehoshaphat, as Potiphar’ s wife would have done Joseph; and truly, that he yielded not, was no less a wonder, than that those three worthies burnt not in the midst of the fiery furnace. But as the sunshine puts out fire, so did the fear of God the fire of lust. Consent thou not.] But carry a severe rebuke in thy counteuance, as God doth. To rebuke them is the ready way to be rid of them.

(10) If sinners entice thee.—A warning against taking part in brigandage, a crime to which Palestine was at all times peculiarly exposed, from the wild character of its formation, and from its neighbourhood to predatory tribes, who would invade the country whenever the weakness of the government gave them an opening. The insecurity to life and property thus occasioned would provide a tempting opportunity for the wilder spirits of the community to seek a livelihood by plunder.

Verse 10. If sinners entice thee, consent thou not.] אל תבא al tobe, WILL-not. They can do thee no harm unless thy will join in with them. God's eternal purpose with respect to man is that his will shall be free; or, rather, that the will, which is essentially FREE, shall never be forced nor be forceable by any power. Not even the devil himself can lead a man into sin till he consents. Were it not so, how could God judge the world?

The Teacher passes from Appeal to Warning: Against Evil Companions. Chap. 1. Proverbs 1:10-1910. sinners] The warning points to a state of society of which indications are to be found not only in the unsettled times “when the Judges ruled” and before the monarchy was firmly established, when “vain” and “discontented” men banded together to lead the life of the outlaw and the freebooter (Judges 11:3; 1 Samuel 22:2); but also in the better ordered periods of Jewish history when Psalmist and prophet inveigh against those who lurk privily in secret to murder the innocent (Psalms 10:8-10), and those whose feet are swift to shed blood (Isaiah 59:7). When our Lord was upon earth such robbing with violence and bloodshed was so familiar an incident in Palestine that He was able to make it the groundwork of a parable (Luke 10:30). And it is so still. “Strange country! and it has always been so. There are a hundred allusions to just such things in the history, the psalms and the prophets of Israel. A whole class of imagery is based upon them. Psalms 10:8-10; ‘He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages’ &c. And a thousand rascals, the living originals of this picture, are this day crouching and lying in wait all over the country to catch poor helpless travellers.” (Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 314.) Two hundred years ago, when young men even of birth and education were to be found in the ranks of the highwaymen who overran the country (see, for example, Macaulay, Hist. of Eng. Vol. i. ch. iii.), the warning was no less apposite in England. In our own day, even in the special form which it here assumes, the warning, in view of the gangs of desperate men, poachers and burglars, to be found still both in towns and in the country, has not come to be superfluous, while in its wider aspect, “My son, if sinners entice thee consent thou not,” it is of universal application.

The first great danger which besets the simple and the young is that of evil companionship. The only safety is to be found in the power of saying “No,” to all such invitations.

10. If sinners entice — The teacher now proceeds to admonish his pupil against being seduced by bad men into evil courses. He must not consent or yield to them. Comp.